Asher by Effy Vaughn

have expected this. I should have known this would happen. He was the one she’d lost and never gotten over.
                  “I waited on him,” I told her. “He’s the reason I didn’t come until now. I was giving him a chance to come to you. But he came to me this morning and told me to come see you. Not to make you wait. That I loved you more than he ever could and you deserved that.”
                  The pain in her eyes was back and I wanted to roar at the unfairness. Why did she have to do this to me? I had waited on her. I had been faithful because I loved her. Why did she have to want him more? He had sent me. He had let her go.
                  I was here.
                  “Oh,” she said unable to look up at me. She studied our hands instead.
                  Oh. Not “I love you too” or “I missed you”. Just a fucking “oh”.
                  “Dixie, do you want this still? Us?” I asked willing her to look at me. To give me something.
                  Finally, she raised her gaze and looked up at me. “Do you?” she asked.
                  Did she even have to ask? “More than anything, Dixie.”
                  She didn’t respond right away. Instead, she waited a few minutes before she let out a soft sigh. “Okay. Yes, I want this too.”
                  Relief washed over me and I wanted to pound my chest. I had won. She was mine. Dixie Monroe was the most gorgeous woman I’d ever laid eyes on and she chose me.
                  “I’ll make you happy, Dixie. I swear, baby.”
                  She nodded then she took a step toward me and laid her head on my chest. This was what I had needed. What I wanted more than anything else. I could do without sex until she was ready. Just knowing it would be my bed Dixie was in one day made it all okay.
                 

DIXIE
     
                  The next week I saw Steel every
day. But not one time did I see Asher. His truck was parked outside by the pump house, but when I was there he never came around. I didn’t ask and Steel didn’t bring it up. I felt like Steel was waiting on me to ask and if I did ask, I would have failed some test of his.
                  Scarlet said I had to find a way to let go of the past. I didn’t know how to do that. Asher was more than just my past. He was a part of me. A piece of my heart and possibly the biggest piece was his. You couldn’t just let go of that. Even when he didn’t want me enough to fight for me.
                  The moment he crooked his finger, I feared I would drop everything and go running to him. He had that much power over me. But it was as if he were gone again. Scarlet said she had seen him two days ago working in the barn with Bray. They had been doing some renovations. He had laughed and he seemed less burdened than he had been in the past.
                  I was glad he wasn’t living with the darkness that had eaten at him for the past three years. But I missed him. I wanted to see him like this. I wanted to see the old Asher again.
                  “Damn, he’s at it again,” Steel muttered drawing me out of my thoughts. I turned to look at where he was frowning. I saw the back of Brent’s head and the familiar red curls of Scarlet’s in the back of Bray’s truck. Smiling, I shook my head. Did they think parking out there was an actual hiding place?
                  “I swear Bray can’t get a full day of work in without getting him some,” Steel said.
                  Frowning, I turned to tell him it wasn’t Bray, that it was Brent, but I stopped and looked back out over the field and squinted. The sun and distance made it hard to see. That was definitely my best friend’s red hair. It was a unique red. I would have known it anywhere. And